Women's Swimming & Diving Headline

Friday June 29, 2012Lochte Locks Up Two Top Seeds for Saturday Swim Finals; Dwyer, Tullius, Vanderkaay Also Advance

Gator
Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.) turned in the fastest time in the
world this year in the 200-meter IM (1:55.51) semifinals, cruising to the top
overall seed in both the 200 IM and 200-meter back on day five of U.S.A Swimming
Olympic Trials at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha Friday.

Storied
foe Michael Phelps touched in second behind Lochte in the 200 IM, while Gator Conor
Dwyer (Winnetka, Ill.) – who clocked the fastest 200 IM in prelims – advanced
to the championship final as the third overall seed (1:58.32) behind the
Lochte/Phelps duo, setting up a showdown for Saturday finals.

Gainesville-based
swimmer Peter Vanderkaay will join in on the 200 IM finals action Saturday,
qualifying as the six seed after a 2:00.33 semifinals performance.

On
a four-swim Friday, Lochte additionally notched the top seed in the 200-meter
backstroke (1:55.73), bringing fellow Gator and Daytona Beach native Rex
Tullius (Daytona Beach, Fla.) alongside with him to finals, as Tullius
checked in fifth (1:58.79) in the event.

In other Friday finals action, Gator grad Teresa Crippen (Conshohocken,
Pa.) gave it her all in the finals of the 200-meter butterfly as the three seed,
racing to a 2:09.45 – her best time in the event at Trials – but fell just
short of a top-two London ticket with a fourth-place overall finish. The day’s
top two seeds in the event, Cammile Adams and Kathleen Hersey, earned the right
to sport the Stars and Stripes at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Florida freshman Matt Elliott (Peoria, Ill.) went out
with the best-of-the-best as the eight seed Friday in the 200-meter breast
championship heat – the first event of the evening – where he posted a 2:12.71
final race. The two-time Gator All-American added another accolade as one of just
eight U.S. Swimmers with a 2012 Olympic Trials finals appearance in the event.
Scott Weltz and Clark Burckle claimed the automatic bids in first and second,
respectively.

For the Gators, Beisel, Dwyer, Lochte and Vanderkaay have all
stamped tickets to London, Beisel in the 400 IM, Dwyer in the 400 free and 800
free relay for his first Olympic appearance, Lochte in the 400 IM, 200 free and
800 free relay, while Vanderkaay took top honors in the 400 free to qualify for
his first Olympic Games.

All but the fastest heats of preliminaries will be webcast live
at www.usaswimming.org June
25-July 1. NBC Sports will broadcast the fastest 2-4 heats of
preliminaries on tape delay later that day. Please note that finals will
air live on NBC at 8 p.m. ET and at 7 p.m. CT. Finals will air tape delayed in
the Mountain and Pacific time zones at 7 p.m. and at 8 p.m., respectively.

A full recap of each day’s events and results
will be available on GatorZone.com. For news, schedules, events and theFacebookandTwitterfeeds of the 2012 Olympic Trials, please log on to the
USA Swimming website.

For up-to-the-minute information on everything
Florida swimming related, follow swimming and diving on Twitter @GatorZoneSwimDv. You can also follow the Gators onFacebook.

FRIDAY RESULTS

FINALS

Men’s 200 Breast Final

8. Matt Elliott 2:12.71

Men’s 200 Back Semifinal

1. Ryan Lochte 1:55.73 – advances
to finals

5. Rex Tullius 1:58.79
– advances to finals

Women’s 200 Fly Final

4. Teresa Crippen 2:09.45

Men’s 200 IM Semifinal

1. Ryan Lochte 1:55.51
– fastest time in world this year, advances to finals